"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

So thanks to Lolsaurus on NAC, we have a HQ recording for episode 1 of the German ARC-V dub! I just gave it a watch while comparing it side-by-side with the original, and well… 

Editing-wise, it looks like it’s on par with early 5D’s with how they think they can make a scene better by switching shots around (which they did with Yoko’s “he’s reinventing himself” flashbacks). They also cut a few of Nico’s mannerisms, like his intro bow and what he did with his hand when he said he’d offer the SVWM system for free, and they got rid of the cards behind Ishijima on the big screen (probably because it’d be hard to edit them all lol; likely why they also cut the panning shot of the buildings with the familiar monsters before it goes up to the LEO/LDS tower). Added (sometimes scene-extending) dialogue is sprinkled everywhere, too (don’t like how Yuzu talks after Yuya falls down, before/after he does that face), while they trim/cut a few other shots (like some of Shuzou or the shot of everyone looking on at Yuya before he thinks of Yushou). And they cut the part of the flashback where Yushou says the pendulum can find things, and when it’s used again later. At least they did keep a few bits of silence, though, but the music, while decent, doesn’t sound all that impressive compared to what it has to compete with.

I’m surprised they kept as much text as they did, though, at the Stadium. A few banners were textless, but some were either translated or had “Ishijima” replaced with a sledgehammer, for obvious reasons. And while they got rid of the names on the VS screens (which I expected to get cut like they were in late 5D’s; they should’ve thought of this earlier; fun fact: when the German dub got to that point, they were basing it on the Japanese version, and they edited the original names with their dub names), there was one shot of Yuya on the big screen as his LP fell with his name still there lol.

And yeah, they replaced some SFX here/there, notably the counter-appearing and stat-changing ones, though it sounded like they kept the one when the stat’s set. Why, though… And yep, no real color-scheme editing. The perks of a HQ recording. :P

So yeah, editing-wise, disappointed with the dub already. Early 5D’s was torture to sit through dubbed (even when I ground through it for my comparisons haha) because I was so into the original and hated the changes they felt they had to make, having been the first YGO series I watched in Japanese from the get-go, and it looks like it’s a repeat with ARC-V’s dub. At the very least, I noticed some lines in the German dub matched the original a bit (or at least mention the Engrish used there), so it may not be a total washout. Have to wait for the English dub to make a full judgment, but there’s that for ya.